Dumb Butt 2019-01-30

[Bookworm]

I believe that technically a Broken Arrow applies only to US weapons.

I believe that was the origin of the term, but most sites seem to use it to refer to _any_ accidents involving (even incidentally) a nuclear weapon. Such as when two nuclear powered subs banged together, or when the Soviet nuclear powered icebreaker went down.

What I've always found absurd is those people that think that radiation is, in and of itself, harmful - or even better, that we _make it_. All 'enriched uranium' is, is refined uranium ore, found naturally. The areas where that uranium is found have a higher than normal background radiation as it is. (plus natural Radon, etc, etc). In fact, if we didn't have the background radiation, the implications from studies have been that we would become less healthy.

[Alkarii]

I bet we'll get another couple of pages (at least) before Castela finally comes to her senses. She might even think Scarlet was talking about herself liking Shawna, and that'll cause a few more issues.

If they'd just stop with the subtlety and rip off the band-aid by outright saying it, it'd be a bit less annoying.

[Dave]

I bet we'll get another couple of pages (at least) before Castela finally comes to her senses. She might even think Scarlet was talking about herself liking Shawna, and that'll cause a few more issues.

If they'd just stop with the subtlety and rip off the band-aid by outright saying it, it'd be a bit less annoying.

So, you're saying that by using excessive subtlety, Scarlet failed to phix the problem?

[Opus the Poet]

It's not hard to defuse a nuke . . .

getting one to go off is hard!

--FreeFlier

Depends... if we're talking about what was dropped on Hiroshima, THAT one was bloody primitive and triggered with only 2 pounds of cordite. It was rather effective.

And the "Pipe Bomb" only uses 2 Kg of C4, one at each end. Technically you only need one charge to go off to get supercriticality, But as others have mentioned the last thing you want is a squib that just spreads radioactive materials across the landscape, so redundancy is a Good Thing.

[FreeFlier]

I believe that technically a Broken Arrow applies only to US weapons.

I believe that was the origin of the term, but most sites seem to use it to refer to _any_ accidents involving (even incidentally) a nuclear weapon. Such as when two nuclear powered subs banged together, or when the Soviet nuclear powered icebreaker went down.

The subs could be a Broken Arrow and the icebreaker would be either Broken Arrow or Bent Spear IF they were carrying nuclear weapons at the time; if not, they would be Faded Giant.

Terminology (US military)

What I've always found absurd is those people that think that radiation is, in and of itself, harmful - or even better, that we _make it_. All 'enriched uranium' is, is refined uranium ore, found naturally. The areas where that uranium is found have a higher than normal background radiation as it is. (plus natural Radon, etc, etc). In fact, if we didn't have the background radiation, the implications from studies have been that we would become less healthy.

You want to watch the fun, prove to one of those twits that they are slightly radioactive.

I once encountered one that wanted a totally radiation-free environment . . . no radiation of any sort . . . she got monumentally bent when I told her she would be dead in seconds. (Frozen solid.) She was an engineer at that time . . . I found her competence and knowledge underwhelming. (She went into management later . . . she retired several years ago and we still haven't undone all the damage. She even managed to do damage with good ideas!)

--FreeFlier

[Warrl]

I don't know if it is still true - sanity in regulation is at least theoretically possible - but there are areas in the US where hundreds of thousands of people routinely stand outside in the natural breeze and, without detectable adverse consequences, breathe air that (under the regulations in place at one time) could not be permitted to leave any building at a nuclear-reactor site because it has too much radioactivity. The city of Denver is one of these areas.

[FreeFlier]

We had that with the city sewer . . . you could not legally put the city tapwater directly into the city sewer because it didn't meet the purity and pH requirements.

Of course, it was only enforced against businesses the city didn't like.


And speaking of radioactivity, don't go into the ash/slag piles from a coal power plant . . . they are . . . rather "hot".

--FreeFlier

[Dave]

I've got a box full of about 20 pounds of black sand I collected from a beach near Half Moon Bay, south of San Francisco. It's radioactive enough to make my Geiger counter rattle happily, and my homemade scintillation probe and analyzer confirms that it has quite a nice amount of thorium in it.

This stuff caused quite a ruckus a few years ago when somebody checked the beaches around here for possible radiation from the Fukushima meltdown, and their counter sounded off. Things calmed down when it was pointed out that it's naturally-occurring material, had been there for thousands to millions of years, and was originally discovered by researchers back in the 1950s.

You could camp on the thickest layer of it for days without any substantial increase in your annual background radiation exposure, or probability of health effects... the levels are several times higher than the average background in the area but not astonishingly higher. The recent re-check found no trace of Fukushima radioisotopes (short-lived caesium).

Now, the "negative ion generator quantum energy pendants" you can find on eBay... those are sorta bad news. They're made of a mineral that's radioactive enough that it you wore one next to your skin for a year you might actually suffer a mild localized radiation burn. Lots of thorium peaks in the gamma ray spectrum. Yeah, they generate "natural negative ions"... beta particles (electrons) moving at a good fraction of light-speed.

[oldmanmickey]

I believe that technically a Broken Arrow applies only to US weapons.

I believe that was the origin of the term, but most sites seem to use it to refer to _any_ accidents involving (even incidentally) a nuclear weapon. Such as when two nuclear powered subs banged together, or when the Soviet nuclear powered icebreaker went down.

What I've always found absurd is those people that think that radiation is, in and of itself, harmful - or even better, that we _make it_. All 'enriched uranium' is, is refined uranium ore, found naturally. The areas where that uranium is found have a higher than normal background radiation as it is. (plus natural Radon, etc, etc). In fact, if we didn't have the background radiation, the implications from studies have been that we would become less healthy.

Because of what and where i worked when i was in the USAF that is the origin of those terms. I can also say that list only covers the declassified incidents so it is not complete.

[Bookworm]

I don't know if it is still true - sanity in regulation is at least theoretically possible - but there are areas in the US where hundreds of thousands of people routinely stand outside in the natural breeze and, without detectable adverse consequences, breathe air that (under the regulations in place at one time) could not be permitted to leave any building at a nuclear-reactor site because it has too much radioactivity. The city of Denver is one of these areas.

Sitting in a granite courthouse for a day gets you irradiated as much as flying from New York to San Francisco. Imagine the yearly dosage for the judges, clerks, and paralegals.

[AnotherFairportfan]

...and then there's the coal pile outside power plants - gives off more radiation than a nuclear plant.

[FreeFlier]

...and then there's the coal pile outside power plants - gives off more radiation than a nuclear plant.

The ash pile is even worse.

--FreeFlier

[Dave]

Sitting in a granite courthouse for a day gets you irradiated as much as flying from New York to San Francisco. Imagine the yearly dosage for the judges, clerks, and paralegals.

And prosecutors, and other law enforcement officers too.

Oh, well... I imagine you get used to it. Even come to like and depend on it.

Come to think of it, this might be why the FBI made a big production out of it when they searched Micheal Cohen's office, and then again when they arrested Roger Stone. They just had to get their raid on for the day.

[Bookworm]

Sitting in a granite courthouse for a day gets you irradiated as much as flying from New York to San Francisco. Imagine the yearly dosage for the judges, clerks, and paralegals.

And prosecutors, and other law enforcement officers too.

Oh, well... I imagine you get used to it. Even come to like and depend on it.

Come to think of it, this might be why the FBI made a big production out of it when they searched Micheal Cohen's office, and then again when they arrested Roger Stone. They just had to get their raid on for the day.

*booo*. Frankly, my experience with law enforcement and prosecutors is that they earn whatever they get, be it cancer or shot. Prosecutors don't care about the spirit of the law (or even the letter), they want convictions. Law enforcement personnel tend to be bullies that have been given a badge because they can project authority (Andy Griffith, not Don Knotts), rather than their interest in serving the public. Not too fond of most judges, either, because they refuse to throw cases out that are obvious garbage, and fine the lawyers/prosecutors that put those cases in front of them.

Obvious example. Man robs convenience store on camera. Face is plain as day. This should be a _15 minute trial_. "Was there a crime committed on this film, at the time and location listed?", "Did the person on the film commit the crime listed here?" Yes. "Is the person in the film present in the courtroom today?" Yes. "Jury should present their decision." That's _it_. Everything else is at the sentencing portion, which could be anywhere from a slap on the wrist to hanging, and you hear whatever might be ameliorating at that point.

Nowadays, that trial will take 12 months to get to court, and take at least a week to go through, because the guy looks totally different after a year in prison, and shouldn't be tried for a crime because he's a gay, black, Jew. (lesbian hispanic buddhist?)

Sorry - rant off.

Still, your wife should smack you for that pun.

[Warrl]

We had that with the city sewer . . . you could not legally put the city tapwater directly into the city sewer because it didn't meet the purity and pH requirements.

Of course, it was only enforced against businesses the city didn't like.

Why didn't one of those businesses sue the water utility for providing so-called tap water that wasn't fit to be sewage?

[FreeFlier]

We had that with the city sewer . . . you could not legally put the city tapwater directly into the city sewer because it didn't meet the purity and pH requirements.

Of course, it was only enforced against businesses the city didn't like.

Why didn't one of those businesses sue the water utility for providing so-called tap water that wasn't fit to be sewage?

Because it would have been thrown out instantly - the water met all state and federal requirements.

The problem was with the city sewer department setting absurd requirements . . . and they have to be able to control what's put into the sewers or people will dump waste that eats the pipes.

BTW, this is a fairly standard trick against people the local authorities dislike . . . as is hitting people for controlling their effluent so that it's too pure.

It's little tin gods abusing their power like always.

--FreeFlier

[Dave]

Still, your wife should smack you for that pun.

She refused your recommendation when I offered my wrist for chastisement ... she's definitely against smacking of any sort. One of her pet peeves is that our local newspaper continues to run a comic strip called "The Duplex". A running gag in this strip is the lead character Eno Camino saying something stupid to a woman next to him in a bar, and bring violently slapped by the (presumably offended) woman. Gwen really doesn't consider this even remotely funny, or an acceptable message to be sending (she's a psychotherapist and counselor, and has had to deal with the consequences of domestic violence and spousal abuse of various sorts.)

She did, however, choke and groan and throw me a dirty look when I told her the pun.

[Bookworm]

Still, your wife should smack you for that pun.

She refused your recommendation when I offered my wrist for chastisement ... she's definitely against smacking of any sort. One of her pet peeves is that our local newspaper continues to run a comic strip called "The Duplex". A running gag in this strip is the lead character Eno Camino saying something stupid to a woman next to him in a bar, and bring violently slapped by the (presumably offended) woman. Gwen really doesn't consider this even remotely funny, or an acceptable message to be sending (she's a psychotherapist and counselor, and has had to deal with the consequences of domestic violence and spousal abuse of various sorts.)

She did, however, choke and groan and throw me a dirty look when I told her the pun.

She'd hate El Goonish Shive and the Hammers, then.

Mind you, I think we'd be a much politer society if people would immediately react to things they don't appreciate. There are many people (not just men) who have no clue that they're even _being_ offensive. Me? If I find something irritating, I say so. I've even thanked people when they told me straight out that they didn't like what I said.